Maybe it’s because head coach Rex Ryan says it every chance he gets, but Jets fans expect their team to win the Super Bowl every year. Sure, they haven’t won one since the Lyndon B. Johnson administration, but Fireman Ed and his crew have high hopes for the Jets.
So when Mark Sanchez‘s Jets were sitting at 5-5, you can understand the fans had some frustrations, and they let them out by booing the quarterback during pregame introductions. Sanchez ranks 19th in the league in quarterback rating, so there was some case for the boo birds, but booing the home quarterback? That doesn’t fly with Jets safety Jim Leonhard.
“[When] our starting quarterback gets booed in introductions, as players, you kind of turn to each other and say, ‘You know what? I guess we’re in this one today by ourselves. We can’t rely on the crowd to give us that energy because it’s already started off on a bad note,'” Leonhard told WFAN, according to the New York Post. “So I will say that this past weekend was really the first time that I’ve been kind of frustrated going into a game, which is bad.”
Perhaps realizing what he had said and that he plays in the craziest media market in the country, Leonhard backtracked a little by complimenting the fans’ passion, but the message was pretty clear.
“If [the fans aren’t] going to give us the benefit of the doubt sometimes, we got to go out there and prove it week in and week out at home as well,” Leonhard said.
Sanchez ended up throwing four touchdowns — a season high — in a win over the Bills, so maybe the fans should just keep on booing.
Photo of the day
Is Jim Leonhard in trouble with Jets fans?
Quote of the day
“Can I tell you something? I’ve never worried about my job status. In 36 years, there have been times when I didn’t have a contract or a contract extension. When I start worrying about my job status, I need to get a job with you guys.”
–Syracuse basketball coach Jim Boeheim, turning the Bernie Fine scandal around on the media
Tweet of the day
Having to write in one of the NHL’s top scorers is ludicrous, so we’ll just have to publicize the Tyler Seguin All-Star campaign as much as possible.
Video of the day
Literally nobody in this video knows how to fight. Yet I’ll go ahead and watch the whole thing. Fighting’s weird like that.
